Liam Graham is on tour and ready to take on the world (Picture: Mark Robinson)
Scotland’s Liam Graham begins his professional snooker career on Monday at the Championship League and he credits his trips to Northern Ireland for his journey to the top tier of the sport.
The 18-year-old claimed a two-year tour card by winning the European Under-21 Snooker Championship in Malta back in March and has been itching to get going ever since.
There has been some drama on the table since then, losing out 10-9 to Sean O’Sullivan in World Championship qualifying, but also some down time, which he admits was all a bit strange.
‘Its mad, Malta feels so long ago, it’s like it was last year,’ Graham told Metro.co.uk. ‘I had time off after the Worlds so it feels even longer after that.
‘It’s weird, I’m so used to playing snooker every day, I’ve never really ever had a break in my life. I was asking my mates who have jobs, “what do you do with your time off?” They all go and play snooker, but that’s no good to me!
‘I had to make myself have a break, it was such a mad time, I didn’t properly enjoy winning in Malta because I won that, was home for one day and came straight over to Northern Ireland to practice for the Worlds.’
Based in Glasgow, Graham travels to Antrim to work with the likes of Mark Allen, Jordan Brown, Robbie McGuigan and young prospect Joel Connolly where he is getting sharper and more experienced all the time.
‘It was Joel who came and stayed with me for a week practicing, then I went over there and it’s a great place to play,’ said Liam. ‘I don’t really like the academies, I don’t enjoy them as much as coming over here. It’s a bit of a dead atmosphere, whereas in the club there’s people around, on a break you can go and talk to the people behind the bar or whatever, have a laugh for half an hour.
‘August last year I first came over here. It’s done absolute wonders, there’s no chances I’d have won in Malta if I hadn’t been coming over here as often as I have.
‘Mark’s unreal, he’s always there for a chat whenever you need him. A bit of stuff on life on tour, shots, how to approach matches beforehand, loads of stuff really. Before we even practice we have a good chat for 15-20 minutes about the game, how he looks at it, how I look at it, it’s really good.
‘I play Jordan mostly. To see where he is in the rankings, you’d think he’d be higher because he’s ridiculous in practice, absolutely ridiculous. There’s loads like that though, I’ve practiced with Fraser Patrick most of my career so far before I started coming over here and he’s ridiculous in practice too.
‘He really helped me as well, I used to speak to him on the phone every day. When I won the Under-21s, he was the first person I spoke to after, all bubbling and crying. I got a lot of good help from him.’
Mark Allen is passing on plenty of advice to Graham (Picture: Getty Images)
Along with his family and his practice partners, Graham works with mental coach Noel Flannery, who he says has been a great influence on him in recent months.
The teenager has built a very handy team around him and thinks it is key to success as he cuts out any negativity.
‘That’s the most important thing for me, the people I have around me, I don’t want any negative influences,’ he said. ‘I want people who are there for me and want me to do well, I don’t want secret friends, people who are against me, because you see a lot of them cutting about.’
Graham’s parents and brother are firmly behind his career, as is his granddad, William, who helped him greatly in his early days on the table.
Tragically William is suffering with dementia now, but Liam was delighted that he was aware of what happened when he triumphed in Malta.
Graham is one of the brightest prospects in Scottish snooker (Picture: Mark Robinson)
‘He was the biggest force in getting me into the game,’ Liam said of his grandfather. ‘I’m happy I got on tour while he half understood what it meant. I would have been disappointed if he had no idea what happened when I got on. I managed to go and see him with the trophy and the medal in hospital and tell him that it was for him.
‘My dad used to work a lot and my grandad would take me to every snooker club he could and he’d stay there for hours waiting for me. He used to give me pelters, tell me how rubbish I was, but now I realise he was doing it so I wouldn’t stop, making me think, “I’ll show him!”’
It was Liam’s father who was in attendance as he beat Iulian Boiko to win the European Under-21s and Graham says it was as emotional as he’d ever seen his dad.
‘I’ve never seen my dad cry in my life and he was bubbling like a big baby!’ Graham said. ‘The two of us were. The last couple of years he’s been coming to most of the events with me, it’s a partnership, he lives every ball like I do.’
On his snooker hero growing up, there was a definite answer, and unsurprisingly it is a fellow Scot.
‘John Higgins all day, he’s definitely the one I looked up to the most growing up,’ he said. ‘I’ve never practiced with him, but we’ve spoken. I’d love to get games with him this year.’
‘John Higgins all day, he’s definitely the one I looked up to the most growing up.’ (Picture: Getty Images)
Perhaps it is the influence of the Wizard that has made Graham a little different to a lot of young players, although it was more down to another Scot.
‘Style of play is a hard one but I’d say I’m a bit more measured than a lot of young players coming up,’ he said. ‘I score well but not amazing, my long-potting is good but not amazing, my safety is very good, but not amazing. My safety is probably my strongest suit. My snooker brain, I think that’s where my talent lies. Thinking of shots, being creative.
‘I’ve never been allowed to be crash, bang, wallop. Every time I played Fraser [Patrick] and I played the wrong shot he would say: “What are you doing playing that? What are you doing? You just can’t do that. How many times do you have to be told, you cannot do that.” He’d be quite serious about it, but looking back I’m he was like that.
‘He was probably a wee bit harsh but it got through to me. He’d be talking about it on the way home in the car and everything, but I’m highly thankful to him for doing that. I wouldn’t be here without all those shouting matches in the car.’
With all that advice behind him, Graham is pumped up to get going on the pro circuit, he just wishes it was a bit more of a high profile start than the behind-closed-doors Championship League.
‘It’s a bit disappointing how it’s publicised,’ he said. ‘If you weren’t in the snooker world I don’t think you’d know it was on. But I suppose it’s only the start of the season, it takes the pressure off, not too many eyes on it, but when the proper tournaments start kicking in, the season will feel like it’s going. The season doesn’t really feel like it’s starting yet.
‘Playing in big arenas in front of crowds, that’s what you dream of, that’s why you practice. You don’t practice to go and play in snooker clubs. You practice to go and play in venues against top players, that’s what I want to be doing for however many years to come.’
The teenager knows the hard work is only just starting now he is on tour, he knows it because it has been drilled into him by the grizzled professionals.
‘The first three texts I got after getting on tour were [Stephen] Maguire, Jordan and Mark and they were all the same: “Well done, the hard work starts now.” It was like they’d copied and pasted it!’
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‘It’s done absolute wonders.’